Players of Mali’s winless squad battled behind the scenes after a loss to Serbia
Two members of Mali’s national women’s basketball team have been recorded battling after a loss to Serbia at the FIBA Women’s Basketball World Cup.
Recovering from their own loss to hosts Australia, Serbia fought back with an 81-68 victory that prevented the winless West Africans from progressing to the quarter-finals.
As Serbia’s top scorer Sasa Cado then gave a post-match interview to national outlet Sport Klub, one of her responses was interrupted by loud noises from another part of the mixed zone.
As seen in a YouTube clip of the incident, Cado is heard screaming as the camera pans to the side to reveal two Malian players involved in a fight.
One of the players, identified as Salimatou Kourouma, can be seen doing her best to try and hit Kamite Elisabeth, who puts her arms under her attacker in a boxing-like clinch.
The two women are separated by other players and members of the coaching staff, with the incident adding insult and injury to Mali’s forgettable World Cup campaign.
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Suffering from an average losing margin of 30.25 points, Mali have lost each of their four games in the tournament so far.
Kourouma averaged 5.3 points for his team and 4.5 rebounds, while Dabou had 3.8 points and one rebound per game.
On Tuesday, Mali can try to restore some pride by beating Canada before heading home.
Serbia will face France in their next game but are guaranteed a place in the quarter-finals regardless of the result, provided Japan lose to Australia.
Elsewhere, Team USA racked up a record number of World Cup points by beating South Korea 145-69 on Monday.
